" ... The separation between rhetoric and reality has been a hallmark of the half-century of wrangling over BLM wilderness lands in Utah. On one side are environmentalists raising money on both coasts by telling people the bulldozers and drill rigs are ready to start ripping through America's treasures. On the other side are the industry-funded lobbyists and PR machines that insist the feds have locked up America's prosperity. Both sides are overselling. ..."

[That's Moscow, Idaho, where the Idaho Republican Convention is about to happen.]

" ... Put plainly, the 'establishment vs. tea party' spat is destroying Idaho. That's the problem with a one-party state. If the dominant party goes off the rails, the entire thing falls down.

"Idaho's GOP is too busy arguing about the important stuff, like mounting a losing defense of 'traditional' marriage or spending mountains of cash on a doomed-but-pandering bid to somehow 'take back' federal lands that Idaho never actually owned. ..."

"A radical environmental group is trying to block Nevadans from accessing untapped energy potential on their own lands. The Center for Biological Diversity recently lodged a formal complaint against the Bureau of Land Management over an upcoming lease sale in Nevada that would unlock some of the state's valuable energy resources. If history is any guide, the BLM will be happy to oblige. ..."

" ... Now lawmakers are again considering taxing fuels that hardly get any use yet, such as butane, hydrogen and electricity. We think doing so is premature. Since they're just emerging, we think it's too soon to rain down taxes on their use. ..."

"One of the arguments most used to oppose addressing the urgent problem of global warming by cutting carbon emissions has been that any plan to move us away from fossil fuels would cause massive job losses and hurt the economy.

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